1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medium detection unit for detecting a condition of a medium to be discharged through a medium conveyance system into a medium discharged section, a medium conveyance apparatus for conveying and discharging a medium toward a medium discharged section, and an image formation system for transferring an image onto an image transferred material (paper or form serving as a sheet-like medium having a rectangular configuration) for the formation of the image thereon.
2) Description of the Related Art
In general, printer systems (image formation systems) for carrying out printing on paper (transferred material) being a medium have come into widespread use.
Such a printer system is connected through a cable or a network such as LAN to a personal computer to perform printing on paper on the basis of printing data coming from the personal computer. Further, the printer system contains a medium conveyance system therein, and transfers an image onto paper for image formation while conveying the paper through the use of the medium conveyance system and subsequently discharge the image-transferred paper into a stacker.
In a communication system in which the personal computer and the printer system are coupled to each other through a network such as LAN, there are the cases that the personal computer which issues a request for print output is physically remote from the printer system. In this communication system, in case that faults or troubles occur in the printer system, the presence of countermeasures for that fault is desirable. For this reason, requirement has arisen for certainly detecting the medium discharged condition.